Drylands extent and environmental issues. A global approach

Prăvălie, Remus

doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.08.003

Cited by 544 publications

(287 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Because drylands occupy approximately 45% of the Earth's terrestrial surface and are home to more than 38% of the global population (1,2), consequences of dryland soil degradation can have global impacts (2). Soil surface crusts, both physical and biological, can protect dryland soil surfaces from erosion (3), but they are often negatively impacted by human activities, such as agriculture, construction, trampling by cattle, off-road vehicle use, or military training (4).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Ayuso

Giraldo-Silva

Nelson

et al. 2017

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are slow-growing, phototroph-based microbial assemblages that develop on the topsoils of drylands. Biocrusts help maintain soil fertility and reduce erosion. Because their loss through human activities has negative ecological and environmental health consequences, biocrust restoration is of interest. Active soil inoculation with biocrust microorganisms can be an important tool in this endeavor. We present a culture-independent, two-step process to grow multispecies biocrusts in open greenhouse nursery facilities, based on the inoculation of local soils with local biocrust remnants and incubation under seminatural conditions that maintain the essence of the habitat but lessen its harshness. In each of four U.S. Southwest sites, we tested and deployed combinations of factors that maximized growth (gauged as chlorophyll a content) while minimizing microbial community shifts (assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing and bioinformatics), particularly for crust-forming cyanobacteria. Generally, doubling the frequency of natural wetting events, a 60% reduction in sunlight, and inoculation by slurry were optimal. Nutrient addition effects were site specific. In 4 months, our approach yielded crusts of high inoculum quality reared on local soil exposed to locally matched climates, acclimated to desiccation, and containing communities minimally shifted in composition from local ones. Our inoculum contained abundant crust-forming cyanobacteria and no significant numbers of allochthonous phototrophs, and it was sufficient to treat ca. 6,000 m 2 of degraded dryland soils at 1 to 5% of the typical crust biomass concentration, having started from a natural crust remnant as small as 6 to 30 cm 2 .IMPORTANCE Soil surface crusts can protect dryland soils from erosion, but they are often negatively impacted by human activities. Their degradation causes a loss of fertility, increased production of fugitive dust and intensity of dust storms with associated traffic problems, and provokes general public health hazards. Our results constitute an advance in the quest to actively restore biological soil covers by providing a means to obtain high-quality inoculum within a reasonable time (a few months), thereby allowing land managers to recover essential, but damaged, ecosystem services in a sustainable, self-perpetuating way as provided by biocrust communities.

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confidence: 99%

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Ayuso

Giraldo-Silva

Nelson

et al. 2017

Appl Environ Microbiol

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“…Even in India and China, commonly thought of as monsoonal or sub-tropical nations, drylands cover a majority of the territory [2]. Whilst there are high temperature clusters in West Asia, the globally coldest states are high latitude Central and East Asia deserts, exemplified by Mongolia, home to the coldest capital city.…”

Section: Asian Drylandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taken as geographical zones, dry areas cover 39% of the continent and account for >1 billion people [1]. These drylands face increasing climate and hazard risk, changing social and economic forces, government (in)action and environmental degradation that affect community viability [2]. The IPCC [3] documents the variability and change in Asian deserts that place them at the centre of the continent's climate-human predicament (Table 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Moderating Climate Hazard Risk through Cooperation in Asian Drylands

Sternberg

2018

Land

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Asia drylands face increasing climate hazard risk, changing socio-economic forces, and environmental challenges that affect community viability. As home to >1 billion residents, deserts are at the centre of the continent's climate-human predicament. Extreme water scarcity, dependence on food imports and now conflict increase hazard exposure across shared drylands, yet management differs from state to state. This paper argues that a more coherent strategy for mitigating risk would be based on natural environments. Linking hazards with livelihoods and social stability identifies how recent drought events disrupted ecosystems and societies. This results in borders rather than geography defining risk and response. Developing a dryland perspective across the continent can be an effective approach to reduce hazard risk and improve cooperation across Asia's extensive arid lands.

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“…Given the vast and growing global 31 extent of dryland regions (Safriel et al, 2005;Prăvălie, 2016), the response of biocrusts to major 32 global change phenomena, such as climate change, may be an important aspect of the overall 33 response of Earth's ecosystems. In particular, due to the potential for dryland feedbacks to future 34 climate (Poulter et consider as dryland ecosystems warm is their carbon (C) balance, specifically carbon exchange 36 of biocrusted soils.…”

Section: Introduction 28mentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of longer-term climate change effects on CO<sub>2</sub> efflux from biocrusted soils differ from those observed in the short-term

Darrouzet‐Nardi¹,

Reed²,

Grote³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Drylands extent and environmental issues. A global approach

Cited by 544 publications

References 74 publications

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Moderating Climate Hazard Risk through Cooperation in Asian Drylands

Patterns of longer-term climate change effects on CO<sub>2</sub> efflux from biocrusted soils differ from those observed in the short-term

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Drylands extent and environmental issues. A global approach

Cited by 544 publications

References 74 publications

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Moderating Climate Hazard Risk through Cooperation in Asian Drylands

Patterns of longer-term climate change effects on CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; efflux from biocrusted soils differ from those observed in the short-term

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Patterns of longer-term climate change effects on CO<sub>2</sub> efflux from biocrusted soils differ from those observed in the short-term